Prison officers’ union accepts fine for lobbying violations

California’s state prison officers’ union has agreed to a $5,500 fine for failing to disclose gifts it gave to state lawmakers from 2009 to 2011 and a corresponding failure to give gift notifications to the recipients.

Fair Political Practices Commission investigator Gary Winuk and counsel Dave Bainbridge signed off on the stipulated penalty that now goes to the commission for approval.

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CCPOA spokesman JeVaughn Baker said the errors were caused by a “clerical error between CCPOA and an outside legal team” that failed to report the gifts as the law requires. When the union discovered the errors, it immediately reported them and filed amended disclosure statements, he said.

“We take complete responsibility of the oversight,” Baker said, “and we’ve taken steps to make sure the lapse won’t happen again.”

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